1. Field of the Present Invention
The present invention is in the field of data processing networks and more particularly to managing the routing of network packets in multiprocessor networks.
2. History of Related Art
In a multiprocessor system where multiple nodes are interconnected through an interconnect, the interconnect can be used to transfer a variety of data including data related to computation as well as data related to I/O requirements. In a conventional network, where no special attention is paid to the mapping between processes or threads and their corresponding nodes, the utilization of the system interconnect may be less than optimal. Certain physical links within the interconnect may used extensively while others are used scarcely. If the number of packets traversing the more heavily used links approaches the bandwidth limitations of the link, network performance or response time may degrade under circumstances where there may be ample bandwidth on other links. It would be desirable to implement methods, systems, and networks that could migrate processes when interconnect usage becomes unbalanced to distribute packets over physical links more equitably.
If the network consists of a relatively few number of nodes and interconnect links, the task of determining which, if any, processes might beneficially be migrated may be quite manageable. As the number of nodes and interconnect links increases, however, the difficult of identifying and correcting undesirable interconnect usage patterns increases dramatically. Any system or technique attempting to address unbalanced network utilization should, therefore, be scaleable such that the solution is relatively indifferent to the number of nodes and the number of switches within the interconnect itself.